"if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs" meaning in English

See if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs}} if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs, {{en-proverb|head=if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs}} if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs
  1. Draws attention to the futility of a plan or strategy in the absence of the resources necessary for it to work. Synonyms: if we had some ham we could have some ham and eggs, if we had some eggs
    Sense id: en-if_we_had_ham_we_could_have_ham_and_eggs,_if_we_had_eggs-en-proverb-LFgBFQgY Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs

Download JSON data for if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs meaning in English (2.5kB)

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        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs"
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      "expansion": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs",
      "name": "head"
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    {
      "args": {
        "head": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs"
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      "expansion": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs",
      "name": "en-proverb"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1997, United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Encryption, Key Recovery, and Privacy Protection in the Information Age, page 110",
          "text": "The situation reminds me of the statement that \"if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs — if we had eggs\" — but in a world in which there are no hens. In theory, truly secure systems are impossible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Russ Hall, No Murder Before Its Time, page 117",
          "text": "\"And if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs,\" Esbeth grumped.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Tracey J. Kinney, Conflict and Cooperation: Documents on Modern Global History",
          "text": "This is the, 'If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs' philosophy. . . . Delivering our cash to dictatorial and silly governments was bad, but even worse was delivering our big ideas about centralization, economic planning, and social justice to a country that had 120 university graduates at the time of independence.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, P.J. O'Rourke, Thrown Under the Omnibus",
          "text": "This is the \"if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs\" philosophy. Or as Nzezele put it as I was leaving Dar after having given him a large and not very well-earned tip, \"When you get back to America, if you find that you have any extra money, could you send me a wristwatch?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Draws attention to the futility of a plan or strategy in the absence of the resources necessary for it to work."
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      "id": "en-if_we_had_ham_we_could_have_ham_and_eggs,_if_we_had_eggs-en-proverb-LFgBFQgY",
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "if we had some ham we could have some ham and eggs, if we had some eggs"
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  "word": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs"
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        "head": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs"
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      "name": "head"
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    {
      "args": {
        "head": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs"
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      "expansion": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs",
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          "ref": "1997, United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Encryption, Key Recovery, and Privacy Protection in the Information Age, page 110",
          "text": "The situation reminds me of the statement that \"if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs — if we had eggs\" — but in a world in which there are no hens. In theory, truly secure systems are impossible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Russ Hall, No Murder Before Its Time, page 117",
          "text": "\"And if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs,\" Esbeth grumped.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Tracey J. Kinney, Conflict and Cooperation: Documents on Modern Global History",
          "text": "This is the, 'If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs' philosophy. . . . Delivering our cash to dictatorial and silly governments was bad, but even worse was delivering our big ideas about centralization, economic planning, and social justice to a country that had 120 university graduates at the time of independence.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, P.J. O'Rourke, Thrown Under the Omnibus",
          "text": "This is the \"if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs\" philosophy. Or as Nzezele put it as I was leaving Dar after having given him a large and not very well-earned tip, \"When you get back to America, if you find that you have any extra money, could you send me a wristwatch?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Draws attention to the futility of a plan or strategy in the absence of the resources necessary for it to work."
      ]
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  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "if we had some ham we could have some ham and eggs, if we had some eggs"
    }
  ],
  "word": "if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.